FSC's track record since going public is awful and most BDCs are in the same boat as well. NAV and dividends per share have continued to drop while the number of shares outstanding and the excessive management fees soar. The fact that Tannenbaum continues to purchase shares is very little consolation. He's been buying all the way down and has been dead wrong.

These are merely vehicles for greedy management teams to fleece unsophisticated retail investors who are chasing yield. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Glad I got out on March 20, 2014 @ $9.41. There are far better companies for one to invest their hard earned dollars.

Yeah, me too. This was the first time I've drafted Peterson in the 8 years I've been playing fantasy football. Looks like I'll be lucky to get any production out of him for the rest of the season. So stupid.

California AG Kamala Harris files suit against JPMorgan (JPM) for alleged "fraudulent and unlawful debt-collection practices" against ~100K credit card holders in the state. Chase's use of illegal robo-signing was "widespread," and "sewer service" litigation was used against borrowers, the suit alleges. (PR) [View news story]

I've kept an eye on ACAS since the glory days of 2006-2007 and then through the dark days of 2009 and beyond. Just my opinion but it would seem unlikely ACAS would trade at the same premium to NAV as the dividend paying BDC's (especially those with growing dividends like ARCC and MAIN). ACAS trades at a large discount partially because of their near-implosion in the 2008-2009 time period.

Not trying to pump here but another interesting company is Sprott Resource Lending (SILU). They're a tiny, $200M market cap firm with $80M in cash + $50M in real estate to divest that provides capital to mining and energy companies. They're relatively new to the game with insiders owning almost 40% of the company. The shares yield 4+% and the dividend should grow nicely as they grow their loan portfolio over the coming years. Turmoil in the junior resource sector should keep the deal flow elevated. I own a few shares.

Not only is further stimulus off the table, but the Fed is likely to emerge from next week's policy meeting with a slightly more upbeat view of the economy, reports Jon Hilsenrath. The fast decline in unemployment has taken Fed officials by surprise, and it could mean more underlying strength in the economy than other data would indicate. [View news story]

Homer Simpson: "Oh, look at me! I'm making people happy! I'm the Magical Man from Happy-Land, in a gumdrop house on Lollipop Lane!"

Homer Simpson: "You're living in a world of make-believe! With flowers and bells and leprechauns and magic frogs with funny little hats."

NY Fed chief Dudley tells a crowd at the University of Albany the risks of a double dip recession have dropped significantly (because we never left?), but that growth remains too slow to put a dent in unemployment. He believes the current run of positive economic data is more than likely a bounce from transitory factors. (Dudley yesterday) [View news story]

These people are paid liars. You will never get the truth from anybody from the Fed or the Treasury. Their job is to deceive you and placate you so they can rob you without you noticing.

I do see your point about oil supply issues having an impact on prices, but I think the devaluation of the dollar (and devaluation of other competing currencies) has a large impact on the price of everything. Unfortunately we don't have any true limits on money creation today. Thus we're effectively measuring the price of everything (since the USD is the reserve currency) with a ruler that continues to get shorter and shorter with each year of monetary debasement. Look at the purchasing power of the dollar since 1913, it is down 95% in less than 100 years. As for labor, there are certainly a variety of factors keeping wages down, mainly offshoring and globalization aka slave labor from China.

Everyone knows the BLS manipulates the CPI using substitution and hedonics, thus their bogus numbers mean very little to people in the real world who receive basically flat wages while costs of the essential goods they purchase continually rise. The BLS certainly have an incentive to under-report CPI, since Social Security COLAs are based upon CPI.

Your cherry-picked statement about gas prices being lower now than they were in 2008 is self-serving and isn't particularly meaningful. I could argue that gas prices are now 2.5x what they were in early 2009.

Look at the massive, unsustainable deficits this country is running and how our "leaders" are dealing with it, and try to tell me we don't have true inflation.

Baloney. Go to the grocery store, the gas station, the pharmacy, the post office, the movie theater, et al. and tell me where prices are falling? I just wish these fools would stop debasing my currency to "fix" unemployment and housing...

Is Terra Nitrogen The Best Income Stock Of The Past Decade? [View article]

Well it sure looks like the whole market is in the process of breaking down. Really none of the issues present in the 2008 crash have been fixed so there's no reason for the markets to do well, aside from loose monetary policy and the plunge protection team's repeated interventions. That said, at some point there will be some deals to be had and I think Ag Growth International is a quality company. People still gotta eat and I love companies that pay monthly dividends.

Is Terra Nitrogen The Best Income Stock Of The Past Decade? [View article]

guraaf: Ag Growth International (AFN.TO; AGGZF.PK) is a nice small cap Canadian company with a variety of agricultural business units. They have less than 13 million shares outstanding and they pay a monthly dividend of $0.20 ($2.40 annualized). With shares at $37.50, that's just shy of a 6.5% yield.